Condenser construction



Sept. l2, 1933. R. A. LANE coNDENsER CONSTRUCTION 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 23, 1930 .wz I/ Agli? 1F15 Ij/ V z 5/ l. M 2 v 7o0 ya z/l l2 2 a. a w f/o. M0 L sept. 12, 1933. R, A. LANE 1,926,051

CONDENSER CONSTRUCTION Filed May 25, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 12, 1933 PATENT OFFICE CONDENSER CONSTRUCTIN Raymond A. La-ne,

Elmhurst, N. Y.,

assigner to Products Protection Corporation, a corporation of Delaware 14 Claims,

This invention relates to electric condenser construction.

One of the objects of this invention is to pro' Vide a compact condenser construction having a high capacity per unit volume. Another object is to provide an electric condenser that will be or highly eilcient action, well adapted for use in operation on circuits oi relatively high potential, inexpensive to manufacture, and well ed for long-continued practical use. A@another object is to provide a condenser construction which may c standardized as to the size and shape of various of its parts so to minimize manufacture and facilitate ease of assembly, all, however, without detractine dependability and high efciency oi' action in practical use. Another object is to 'provide a voltage electric condenser construction in which insulation problems are vastly in* imized, *b

1 i Another ooiect is to provide a high voltage condenser in which Cri thoroughly dependable eiiicient insulation is achieved in a` practical and inexpensive manner. Other objects will be in part Vobvious or in part pointed out hereinafter. v

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, com?" ations of elements, and arrangements of parts as will be es. fled in the structure to be hereinafter desc; .Jed and the scope of the application oi which will be indicated in the -following claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of my invention,

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional View, certain of the parts being shown in elevation,

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional View, as seen along the lir.- 2--.2 of Figure 1, and

Figure?, is a detached Vertical sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken transversely of one of the interconnecting conductors shown vin Figure 2.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown at lo a tank or casing, preferably a pressed steel tank, capable .of withstanding substantial pressure; this tank is preferably ci generally cylindrical shape, as appears from Figure 2, and is provided with a closure member 11, carrying a voltage terminal 12 substantially at its center, and adapted, after the condenser construetion described in detail below has been inserted into the casing 10, to be welded to the latter as at 13. The terminal 12 may be of any suitable Serial No. 455,072

construction for passing the high tension condoctor, leading to the high tension terminal of the condenser within the container, through the nietal wall iormed by the closure member 11.

As for the condenser construction, I prefer to build latte' in the form oi sections and by way ci illustration l have shown the condenser, in the drawings, as made up oi seven sections, Jmely, sections 14, 15, 16, 1'?, 18, 19 and 20. It will. be understood, however, that a greater or 6u number oi sections may be employed.

In so far as certain features oi my invention "e concerned, the condenser elements that go to lalzo up each section may be of any desired or suitable construction but preferably each section F is made up of rectangularly shaped sheets of metal i'oil alternated with a suitable solid dielectric material in sheet iorm, such as a suitable suitable number of foil plates (not "i in the drawings) are embodied in eac *'f o insulated, oi course, from each other, and connected together in any suitable manner so each section, as will be more clearly debed hereinafter, will have two terminals to permit electrical connection to be made to the The sections 14, 15, 16, etc. generally rectangular in shape and oi a thickness depending upon various factors such as the number oi foil plate members therein, the thickness of the sheet insulating material, and the like, are arranged ilatwise against each other, adjacent sections being separated by suitable solid dielectric barriers, made, for example, oi pressboard, and indicated at 2i. 90

Against the outer face of the end section 14 is laid a rigid metal plate 22, a suitable sheet 23 oi solid dielectric material, like presseboard, being interposed therebetween. Similarly a rigid metal plate 24 is laid against the outer face of the opposite end section 20 with a sheet of insulation 25 interposed therebetween.

The thus far assembled condenser sections are thereupon tightly compressed and held in compressed and assembled relation by nieans of upper and lower bolts 26 and 27, having their ends passed through angle iron members 28 that extend crosswise of the metal plate members 22 and 24 and having their ends projecting suiciently above and below the assembled condenser sections as will cause the tie bolts 26 and 27 adequately to be suiiiciently spaced from the alined condenser sections. The tie bolts 26 in coaction with the angle iron members 28 and the end plates 22 and 24 thus hold the condenser sections in tightly compressed and assembled relation.

rfhe thus assembled condenser sections are thereupon inserted into the casing 10, through the upper open end thereof, whereupon, after certain connections described hereinafter have been made, the closure member 11 is welded in place to hermetically seal the condenser within the tank or casing 10.

As above noted, each condenser section is provided with suitable connecting terminals and these are preferably brought out of the respective sections at points in their vertical end faces, as viewed in Figure 1.

In order to make clearer the manner of interconnecting of the different condenser sections, let it be assumed that the condenser is to operate on a circuit of 35000 volts, one side of which circuit is grounded. Let it further be assumed that each section of the condenser, there being illustratively seven sections, is constructed to with- Stand and operate at a potential of 5000 volts. In the operation of the condenser, therefore, each section will account for a reactance drop of 5000 volts, the reactance drop across the entire condenser being 35000 volts, the assumed voltage of the circuit in which the condenser is to operate.

One terminal 14e of the end section 14, which, as Viewed in Figure 2, will be seen to be nearest the lowermost side portion of the side walls of the casing 10, is grounded, as by conductor 29, to the container 10; the other terminal 14b (see Fig. l) at a potential of 5000 volts, is connected by a conductor 30 to the outermost terminal 20a of the other end section 20 which, as viewed in Figure 2, is the section that is nearest the uppermost side portion of the wall of the container 10. The other terminal 20b of the section 20, this terminal being at a potential of 10,000 volts, is connected by conductor 36 to terminal 15a of section 15 which is the section adjacent the opposite end section 14.

The other terminal 15b of the section 15, this terminal being at a potential of 15000 volts, is connected by conductor 31 to one terminal 19a of the section 19 which is adjacent the opposed end section 20.

The other terminal 19b of the section 19, this terminal being at a potential of 20,000 volts, is connected by conductor 32 to a terminal 16a of the section inwardly adjacent of the section l5; the other terminal 1Gb, at a potential of 25,000 volts, is connected by conductor 33 to terminal 18aN of the section 17 next adjacent, in an inward direction, to the section 19.

The other terminal 18h, at a potential of 30,000 volts, is connected by conductor 34 to one terminal 17a of the middle section 17 which also is the section adjacent, in an inward direction, to the section 16. The section 17 adds 5,000 volts to the series circuit thus being traced and hence the other terminal 17b of the section 17 will be at a potential of 35,000 volts. This terminal 17h, however, is preferably taken out of the section 17 in its upper end face (see Fig. 2) whence a conductor 35 connects it to the conductor of the high voltage terminal 12.

Relative to the casing, the highest potential effective in the one end section 14 is 5,000 volts; hence the insulation, such as the press-board member 23, that I need provide between the sec-- tion 14 and the adjacent side wall portion of the casing l0 need be effective only for this voltage. The highest potential effective in the section 20, relative to the casing 10, is 10,000 volts, and

hence the insulation, such as the press-board member 25, between that and section 20 and the adjacent side wall portion of the casing 10 need be effective to withstand only 10,000 volts.

The highest potential effective in the section 15 will be 15,000 volts, relative to the casing 10, but it will be noted that this section is, by reason of its interconnection with respect to the other sections, positioned more remotely from the end wall section, having, in fact, interposed between it and the latter the condenser section 14.

The highest potential effective in the section 19 will be 20,000 volts, relative to the other or opposed side wall portions of the casing 10, but, as will be clear from the drawings, the section 19 finds itself spaced inwardly from the side Wall portion to a greater extent than is the end section 20.

In like manner section 16, then section 18, and finally section 17, the latter of highest potential relative to the casing, find themselves progressively more distant from the opposed side wall portions of the casing 10.

Thus it will be noted that, as the potentials of the sections relative to the casing increase, they are positioned proportionately more remote from the casing wall and even though there is effective in the apparatus a potential as high as 35,000 volts under the above-assumed illustrative practical conditions, any single insulating barrier anywhere in the condenser construction need withstand a potential of only 10,000 volts, that being the potential difference between the end section 20 and the adjacent side portion of the casing wall and that being the potential difference between any two adjacent sections. The pressboard barriers 21 and 25 therefore need be constructed to withstand safely only 10,000 volts, though parts of the apparatus actually function at a voltage greatly in excess of that figure.

The sealed casing 1l is filled preferably with a gaseous dielectric under pressure, such as nitrogen under a pressure on the order of fifteen atmospheres, and this gaseous dielectric under pressure serves to coact with certain of the solid dielectric media employed to effect an unusually efficient insulation, certain features of which will be described hereinafter.

The connecting conductors 30, 36, 31, 32, 33 and 34 will be seen to be displaced vertically, as is clearly shown in Figure l, and they, moreover, are positioned in the segment-like space between the alined right-hand ends (see Figure 2) of the condenser sections and the adjacent curved wall 0f the casing 10. Preferably these connectors, which are preferably covered with a solid dielectric material as is indicated in Figure 3, where one of these conductors with its insulating covering is shown in cross-section spaced from the container wall, are curved, in a manner generally indicated in Figure 2, and they are, moreover, so shaped that, as they cross-connect condenser sections to either side of the middle section 17, they are progressively more distantly spaced from the condenser as their potentials re1- ative to the condenser sections which they have to jump over increase and so that, also, as their potentials relative to the casing 10 increase, their spacings from the latter progressively increase.

By way of example, the connector 30, at a potential of 5,000 volts as above noted, is most closely positioned to the curved side wall of the casing 10 but it is so bent or looped that its spacing from the middle section 17 (which is at a potential of 35,000 volts) is relatively great. The connector 36, at a potential of 10,000 volts relative to the casing 10, is spaced a greater distance from the curved wall of the casing while it is more closely spaced to the voltage section between which and itself thereexists a potential differ ence of 25,000 volts.

The gaseous dielectric under pressure coacts with the solid dielectric coverings on the abovementioned connectors to make it possible to diminish the abovesmentioned spacings material-- ly and to make it possible to use a lesser amount of solid dielectric material covering the connectors themselves.

Recurring now to the insulation of the individual condenser sections from the casing l itself, it might first be again noted that the potential diiiferences between the sections and the casing l0, referring now to Figure 2, increase in a direction from the section 14 to the section l? and from the section to the section 17; these right-hand and left-hand portions of the casing lo, still as viewed in Figure 2, or, more clearly, those opposed portions of the side wall of the casing 1l) that are subtended by the chords forming the alined vertical edges of the alined sections are progressively more distant from these sections as the potential differences above noted increase. The spacing between these portions of the side walls and the vertical edges of the alined sections are filled with the gaseous dielectric under pressure and thus the thickness of the layer of this gaseous dielectric under pressure increases sub-1 stantially in proportion to the increasing potential differences between the sections and the side wall portions of the casing.

Thus a thoroughly dependable insulation of the sections of higher voltage not only from each other and from sections of lower voltage but also from the casing itself is dependably achieved,

not only in a vertical direction, as viewed in Fig ure 2, but also in a horizontal direction, as viewed in this iigure. Moreover, these advantages will be seen to be achieved with apparatus of exceecf ingly simple construction and arrangement and, moreover, apparatus that lends itself readily to inexpensive and rapid manufacture.

It will thus be seen that there has been provided in this invention a condenser construction in which the various objects above noted, together with many thoroughly practical advantages are successfully achieved. It will be seen that the apparatus is of a thoroughly practical nature, is well liapted to operate at relatively high potentials, has a high capacity per unit volume and achieves highly efficient insulation with a minimum of insulating media.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the above invention and as many changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter hereinbefore set forth, or shown in 4the accompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as ilustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

l. In condenser construction, in combination, a casing having opposed side wall portions, a condenser made up ofA sections alined between said opposed side wall portions, and means cross con necting sections lying to either side of a middle section so that the endmost' sections, respectively adjacent said side wall sections, are oi' relatively lowest potential, and a middle section of highest potential, and intervening sections of progressively increasing potential as said middle section is approached.

2. In condenser construction, in combination, a casing having opposed side wall portions, a condenser made up of sections alined between said opposed side wall portions, a high voltage terinal having its conductor connected to a middle section, means grounding an end section to said container, means connecting the other terminal ci said end section to a terminal of the other end section, means connecting the other terminal of said other end section to a terminal of a section adjacent said iirst-mentioned end section, means connecting the other terminal or said adjacent section to a terminal of a section adjacent said other end section, and means connecting the other terminal of said last-mentioned adjacent section to the other terminal of said middle section.

3. A condenser construction, in combination, a container having side wall portions, a condenser made up of sections arranged in substantial alinement between said side wall portions, a high voltage terminal having its conductor connected to a terminal or" a middle section so that said middle section is of highest potential, and means alternately connecting in series sections to either side of and progressively more remote from said middle section.

4. In condenser construction, in combination, a container, and a high voltage condenser therein and made up of sections serially connected in alternation about a middle section so that the po tential differences between sections and said container vary, said container having a wall shaped so that the spacing thereof in a direction lengthwise of said sections varies in accordance with the potential differences between said sections and said wall, and a gaseous dielectric under pressure filling the space between said sections and said wall.

5. In condenser construction, in combination, a 115 container, and a high voltage condenser therein and made up of sections serially connected in alternation about a middle section so that the potential differences between sections and said container vary, said container having a wall 120 shaped so that the spacing thereof in a direction lengthwise or said sections varies in accordance with the potential diierences between said sections and said wall.

6. In condenser construction, in combination, a container having side wall portions, a condenser made up of sections arranged substantially in alineinent between said side wall portions, and means connecting all of said sections in series so that a middle section is of highest potential, end 130 sections adjacent said side wall portions of relatively lowest potential, and sections intermediate of said middle section and said end sections will be of potentials intermediate of said highest and said relatively lowest potentials.

7. In condenser construction, in combination, a container having side wall portions, a condenser made up of sections arranged substantially in alinement between said side wall portions, and means connecting all of said sections in a single series circuit starting from an inner section and progressively including the more outward sections, the spaced relation between container and condenser being such that the sections have a potential substantially proportionate to their respective distances from the nearest side wall portion.

8. In condenser construction, in combination, a substantially cylindrical casing, a condenser with- 150 in said casing and made up of a plurality of serially connected sections, said sectionsl being of substantially the same size and alined and having their planes extending parallel to the axis of said cylindrical casing, and means connecting said sections so that the potentials, relative to said casing, of said sections progressively increase in a direction from the endmost sections to a middle section. Y

9. In condenser construction, in combination, a substantially cylindrical casing, a condenser within said casing and made up of a plurality of sections, said sections being of substantially the same size and alined and having their planes extending parallel to the axis of said cylindrical casing, and connectors, positioned in the segment-shaped space between the curved side wall of said casing and said alinesections for progressively and alternately mcsa-connecting sections to either side of a middle section of said condenser so that the sections more remote from said middle sections are of progressively lower potentials.

10. In condenser construction, in combination, a substantially cylindrical casing, a condenser within said casing and made up of a plurality of sections, said sections being of substantially the same size and alined and having their planes extending parallel. to the axis of said cylindrical casing, and connectors, positioned in the segmentshaped space between the curved side wall of said casing and said alined sections for progressively and alternately cross-connecting sections to either side of a middle section of said condenser so that the sections more remote from said middle sections are of progressively lower potentials, said connectors being insulated from the wall of said casing by solid dielectric material arranged in series with gaseous dielectric under pressure.

11. In condenser construction, in combination, a substantially cylindrical casing, a condenser within said casing and made up of a plurality of sections, said sections being of substantially the same size alined and having their planes extending parallel to the axis of said cylindrical casing, connectors, positioned in the segmentshaped space between the curved side wall of said casing and said alined sections for progressively and alternately cross-connecting sections to either side of a middle section of said condenser that the sections more remote from said middle sections are of progressively lower potentials, and a gaseous dielectric under pressure lling said segment-shaped space and said connectors being immersed therein.

12. In condenser construction, in combination, a substantially cylindrical casing, a condenser within said casing and made up of a plurality of sections, said sections being of substantially the same size and alined and having their planes extending parallel to the axis of said cylindrical casing, and connectors, positioned in the segment-shaped space between the curved side wall of said casing and said alined sections for progressively and alternately cross-connecting sections to either side of a middle section of said condenser so that the sections more remote from said middle sections are of progressively lower potentials, said connectors being so spaced from the wall of said casing that the spacing increases as the potentials of said connectors increase.

13. In condenser construction, in combination, a container having opposite side wall portions, a condenser made up of a plurality of plate elements, the planes of which extend transversely to a line joining said opposed side Wall portions, and means connecting all of said plate elements in a single series circuit starting from an inner section and progressively including the more outward sections, the spaced relation between container and condenser being such that the plate elements have a potential relative to the casing substantially proportionate to their respective distances from the nearest side wall portion.

14. In condenser construction, in combination, a container having cpposed side wall portions and opposed end wall portions, a condenser made up of a plurality of plate elements the planes of which extend substantially transversely to a line connecting said opposed side wall portions, said end Wall portions and said condenser elements being shaped with respect to each other so that the spacing between said end wall portions and the adjacent edge portions of said plate elements increases in a direction from each side Wall portion toward substantially the middle plate element of said condenser, and means connecting all of said plate elements in a single series circuit so that the plate elements have potential differences relative to said casing substantially proportional to their respective shortest distances from the nearest side wall portion and end wall portion.

RAYMOND A. LANE. 

